Quote of the day:
"The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do." -- B.F. Skinner

1. Editor's Note: Lock 'Em Up!

Good news on the anti-crime front: more spammers, phishers, and
other rippers-off of little old ladies are getting caught and
going to jail.

Recent enforcement efforts include:

Six more people pleaded guilty on charges related to the
so-called "Shadowcrew" scam operation that
investigators say was one of the largest phishing rings ever. The
operation had about 4,000 members who dealt with at least 1.5
million stolen credit-card numbers and caused more than $4
million in losses, federal prosecutors said.

Peter Moshu of Florida, the so-called Timeshare Spammer, was found guilty of
sending millions of unsolicited E-mails that tried to pry
personal information by offering brokerage services for people
interested in selling their time-share vacation homes. For his
trouble, he's getting a year in federal prison and will have to
pay $120,000.

The United Kingdom's "Weaselboy" spammer--don't you just love
these names?--was sentenced to six years in prison. The
23-year-old sold bogus domain names and threatened to kill anyone
who tried to shut down his scam. Moreover, the loser also put his
own family at risk; he operated all of this out of his dad's
house. Businesses that complained about his actions were flooded
with millions of spam messages in retaliation, and he even
threatened police.

It's only through this kind of successful enforcement effort that
there's even a chance of stemming the tide. Kudos--and many
thanks--to the federal, state, local, and international
law-enforcement personnel involved, and for the cooperation and
other behind-the-scenes efforts that are inevitably required to
make these kinds of charges stick.

When the spammers and phishers are in jail, they might be able to
get their hands on at least one computer-related device, if a
vendor has its way. A new RFID-enabled phone is being offered to
correctional facilities for prepaid or direct-bill telephone
service geared toward inmates, to automatically identify and bill
the caller.

In the meantime, here's a longer-term approach to security I'm
hoping that more universities will adopt. This past weekend, Iowa
State University hosted a hacking competition for its
students, who were charged with protecting and defending a
business-oriented network from threats. That's really our best
long-term strategy, to train these upcoming IT security
professionals more thoroughly than ever and to teach them how to
think like the bad guys.

Security Spending In China
Compare the security spending and investment plans of 700 Chinese
sites against the strategies and experiences of 2,540 U.S.
companies in InformationWeek's research report, China-U.S.
Information Security 2005.http://www.informationweek.com/reports

Help Choose The Best Independent Tech Blog Of 2005
The nominations for the second annual Blog-X Awards came fast and
furious. We've winnowed down the list to 10 blogs. Cast your vote
for the top independent tech blog! The winner will be revealed
around Dec. 16 and will receive a $500 Starbucks coffee card.http://www.techweb.com/blogawards/vote.html

There is at least one subject where this reporter and President
Bush are on the same general page, and that's regarding the need
for this country's health-care system to rid itself of its
addiction to paper. Marianne Kolbasuk McGee explains more in her
blog entry.

Organizations look to federated identity technologies to link
their partners and other constituents without the burden of
managing their identities and credentials, while also easing
access to partners' applications.

To learn more about what organizations are doing to tackle attacks and threats we surveyed a group of 300 IT and infosec professionals to find out what their biggest IT security challenges are and what they're doing to defend against today's threats. Download the report to see what they're saying.

IT pros at banks, investment houses, insurance companies, and other financial services organizations are focused on a range of issues, from peer-to-peer lending to cybersecurity to performance, agility, and compliance. It all matters.

Join us for a roundup of the top stories on InformationWeek.com for the week of November 6, 2016. We'll be talking with the InformationWeek.com editors and correspondents who brought you the top stories of the week to get the "story behind the story."